The Ultimate Luxury
Hellooo friends,
Thanks for all of your feedback from last week’s newsletter! I really love hearing what’s working for you (or what’s not) and seeing your names in my inbox is *the best*.
This weekend, I hope you’re getting some time for you, and time to connect with those that bring out the best in you. I’ll be living at the rink (hashtag hockey mom) and trying to stay focused on a) great sleeps and b) moving my body. That's luxury, isn't it? Having the ability to decide how to live your own life? I have been riffing on that idea, so much so that I posted a quote to IG earlier this week:
So, whether you’re curling up under a blanket to binge-watch something or heading out for a little dinner party and need a playlist, I’ve got great recommendations for your as you go about your weekend.
The entire aim of Hard Copy is to filter through the noise and get you only the essentials, shipping them straight to your inbox. I love to help make your life a little more simple and a lot more enjoyable.
Big hugs,
Emily
PS come play with us on instagram.
Key Takeaways
📺 Watch
The Idea of You (Prime) is all it’s cracked up to be: a beautiful, fun, light, sexy romantic comedy adapted from the book by Robinne Lee. Starring the dazzling Anne Hathaway and the absolute heat score Nicholas Galitzine, it is sure to be one of those comfort movies we watch a few times a year.
Have you watched Hacks (Max…um, HBO)? If not, I’d start catching up on Seasons 1 and 2, because Season 3 is out now and it’s the kind of comedy I’d like to put in an IV bag and shoved directly into my veins. Sometimes it’s tough to tell if Jean Smart is acting or she’s just being Jean Smart. That’s a compliment.
For those looking for something more intense, The Veil (Disney+) offers us an international spy thriller starring Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale).
🎧 Listen
Dua Lipa has a new album out. The dancing queen saved our souls during the pandemic with her incredibly fun Future Nostalgia. Radical Optimism is not an album that’s meant to be dissected; it’s just meant to be danced to!
I swear, Aidan - a talented florist and artist - was a music supervisor in another life. The sonic savant blessed us with an April playlist earlier this month, and I’ve only now stopped listening to it in order to usher in her May Playlist for Hard Copy.
Take a deep breathe and be easy with the dreamy, gauzy, soothing new album Time is Glass from Six Organs of Admittance.
📚 Read
Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution covers 3 of my favourite topics: 18th century France, fashion, and a sartorial revolt. Beautifully detailed, art historian Anne Higonnet gives us a stylish tour through history.
Whoopsie, same country, but a very different book: The Paris Novel by bestselling author Ruth Reichl gives us a hopeful, uplifting, and indulgent adventure when Stella is left with an unusual inheritance from her estranged mother: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris”.
For those seeking more notable literary pursuits, I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Nobel prize winning The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka, originally published in 1965. It is poetic, tragic, and impossibly evocative, and left me thinking about it long after I put it down.
✨ Indulge
If the luxe and saturated stills from the Palm Royale TV series haven’t convinced you to watch it yet, maybe the costumes will. Fashion writer Jessica-Belle Greer does an *excellent* job convincing us why the Palm Royale series should be on our summer mood board. Oversized Emilio Pucci shades, a jumpsuit, and a cocktail ring? Don’t mind if I do.
📱 Your Weekly Breakdown from our friends around the web
Tech & Work
You’ve got to read this very touching essay by Gen Z writer Freya India. Her longing for “A Time We Never Knew: will tug at the heartstrings of youngs and olds alike:
“...most of us in Gen Z were given phones and tablets so early that we barely remember life before them. Most of us never knew falling in love without swiping and subscription models. We never knew having a first kiss without having watched PornHub first. We never knew flirting and romance before it became sending DMs or reacting to Snapchat stories with flame emojis. We never knew friendship before it became keeping up a Snapstreak or using each other like props to look popular on Instagram.” (After Babel)
AI language models are trained by indiscriminately scraping the web, and that includes our personal data. (MIT Technology Review)
Continuing the thread of deciphering between what’s real and what isn’t, what is the measure for determining What is Art, and what if that art makes you uncomfortable? Author Jen Silverman wrote an op-ed on the subject and it’s sharp and perceptive and applies broadly to the work of creatives, how it ties to money, and how our perception of that art influences the art itself. (NYT)
Women
“Love? In this economy?” In a culture so driven by rationality, how can we love? Is it possible to lean into or even embrace our emotional intelligence? An essay on love to read and revisit over and over. (Small Wire)
Young Adult and Fantasy author Leigh Bardugo talks through her process, her previous work, her latest novel, and her version of hell. A very entertaining interview with a major talent! (NPR)
It’s Shonda Rhimes’ world and we’re just living in it. The TV queen and one of the most powerful showrunners in the business (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Inventing Anna, Bridgerton, and so many more) is in interview mode talking about her future and that of television’s, as well. (Variety)
Culture
Just when you thought dating couldn’t get worse, men take it to another level: why not use a deepfake app to create completely made up livestream with an AI audience to try to convince girls that you’re the life of the party? (404 Media)
An interesting question to riff on: what would the cultural implications be if things like nightlife and clubbing and live music didn’t exist? (The Guardian)
Last and but not least, a little girl thought monsters were hiding in her bedroom. It turned out to be 60,000 bees. (BBC)